An aluminum alloy that is used, for example, in an automobile engine is supplied in a molten state to a server of a die-cast machine. A container that has been called “a ladle” is used in a transportation of such molten aluminum.
In this system, aluminum is melted to blend in a factory where an aluminum alloy is blended and poured in a container in a molten state. The container is placed on a truck and transported to a factory where an engine is molded, and the container is placed on a forklift to transport to a server of a die-cast machine, and the molten aluminum is supplied from the container to the server.
When aluminum alloy is once solidified in a factory where it is blended and transported to a factory having a die-cast machine in, so-called, an ingot state, a process of melting the ingot in the factory having the die-cast machine becomes necessary. Accordingly, there are problems in that energy is wasted and CO2 exhaust increases. The above-mentioned system intends to overcome such problem.
The inventors of the present invention proposed a hermetically sealed container supplying molten aluminum using pressure difference and have variously applied improvements thereto. A basic embodiment of such container is that a cylindrical container main body with an upper portion being opened and covered with a large lid, a hatch disposed at a substantially center of the large lid is provided with a port for introducing a gas for applying pressure inside the container and also with a flowpath and a pipe for supplying molten aluminum to the container main body.
The large lid is solidly attached with a bolt and a nut through a packing to the container main body, one end side of a two-dimensionally seen hatch (small lid) is attached with a hinge to the large lid, and the other side thereof is made fixable to the large lid with a bolt with a handle. The hatch, after taking the bolt with a handle off the main body, can be opened and closed up and down with the hinge as an axis (See JP-A-2004-276118).
The reason why the hatch is provided is to open the hatch to pre-heat the inside of the container with a gas burner. Another reason why the hatch is provided is to externally scoop oxide (called as slag) floating on the surface of the molten aluminum stored in the container. Specifically, the hatch is opened and a tool for scooping the slag is inserted to the inside of the container to scoop the slag from the surface of the molten aluminum and the slag is taken to the outside of the container.